I know there has been a lot of skepticism about this movie because :. it's a horror movie, and 2: the guy promoting it released a tribute movie to M. "What A Twist?" Shyamalan a few weeks back. Well I just saw this yesterday so I feel a review is needed from someone else other than MWG.

Okay it needs to be said that this is not the scariest movie of all time, the hype for this movie is too big, however the praise that this movie is getting is well deserved. Most horror movies nowadays forget how to actually scare an audience, they just rely on gore and special effects. This movie as almost no gore or special effects. The horror in this movies comes from what you don't see, you never really see the tormentor, but you see the effect it has on it's victims. Most of the creepy stuff happens at night while they are asleep. The camera is set up with a view of the room and the hallway, and it is here where the movie is at it's best. You see lights turn on and off, you hear footsteps, scratching and loud noises, you hear stuff breaking and see bed sheets moving off peoples bodies and faint shadows on the wall. It affects the viewer at such a primal level that you can't help but get a little chill down your neck. And i think that's the
reason why this movie is so successful at what it does is because it
actually looks like how you would think a haunting would look like, no
scary children, no cgi or badly dressed monsters, no over the top gore,
and no person looking like he's taking a sh*t out of his mouth. It just keeps it simple, and for the most part relies on the whole less is more thing.And before get accused of being easily scared, I'll just say that I'm not, Hell I'm usually never scared of movies (last movie that scared me was Alien, and I was 6 when i saw it), haven't been for years, but this legitimately freaked me out at times. If i had any complaints it would be that the boyfriend wins Dumbass of the year award, and the ending is a little bit of a cop out.

But overall I'd say
go see this movie now more than ever to show that when a good horror
movie comes, people will support it. Just don't go into it with the ludicrously high expectations set by the internet. just sit back and enjoy, and remember to bring a girl with you, trust me on this one, you might get lucky.

So in closing, MWG, throw some confetti, have a Smirnoff ice, smoke a swisher sweet and buy a $20 hooker because, and I can't believe I'm saying this, you were right everyone else (including me) was wrong in a sense. Just don't let it go to your head because you are the same guy that said Orphan deserved to be nominated for an academy award... or something like that.

Even I will admit MWG was right this time. It's nice to know that even some of the worst armchair critics can have good taste from time to time. Hopefully, he won't blow it by overhyping any more run-of-the-mill slasher remakes ... or claming that "The Last Airbender" should sweep the Oscars and is the greatest martial arts movie of all time (that honor belongs to "Enter The Dragon", followed by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") just because it's directed by Mr. "What A Twist!".

Even I will admit MWG was right this time. It's nice to know that even some of the worst armchair critics can have good taste from time to time. Hopefully, he won't blow it by overhyping any more run-of-the-mill slasher remakes ... or claming that "The Last Airbender" should sweep the Oscars and is the greatest martial arts movie of all time (that honor belongs to "Enter The Dragon", followed by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") just because it's directed by Mr. "What A Twist!".

Is it just me or did I find "House of Flying Daggers" much better than CTHD?

I have an updated review based on how I felt after seeing the movie for a couple of days:

Katie and Micah are a couple who've just moved into a new home. Katie believes that malevolent spirits have been following her since childhood, though Micah is not so easily convinced. However, after several nights of loud noises and strange happenings, Micah starts to agree with Katie that some sort of ghost may have followed them to the new home. Micah decides to take control of the situation and sets up a battery of video cameras so that if a spirit manifests itself, he can capture its behavior on tape.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is a small, little horror movie that is getting a lot of buzz lately similar to BLAIR WITCH ten years ago. Let me start off by saying to not keep your expectations as high as the hype because the hype makes the film out to be the scariest film in the last decade and even the scariest film of all time, which is really ridiculous. Setting your standards based on the hype does the movie injustice. However, saying that, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY IS a good, scary film, which we rarely see in Hollywood these days. Oh, wait. This was PICKED UP by Hollywood. My mistake. Like BLAIR WITCH, the film starts off as if everything is fine which makes the scary scenes much more terrifying.

Hitchcock once said that suspense is the ANTICIPATION leading up to the explosion of a ticking time bomb and the scare is the bomb explosion itself. The former part of that statement describes PARANORMAL ACTIVITY perfectly. Like BLAIR WITCH, the film is all about the build up of fear, starting off very subtle but slowly escalating as the story progresses and by the end, you're almost killed by the tension! No, the movie doesn't rely on cheap gore effects, gratuitous violence, or useless nudity. No, it doesn't rely on CGI or make-up effects. It relies heavily on your sense of imagination, which, ultimately, is the cause of your own fear.

The film also has a real authenticity feel to it, especially the exchange between with actors Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, whom both pull off very fine and realistic performances. Oh, and when you go home after the movie is finished, and when you get in your bed to sleep at night, good luck with that. This film not only makes you afraid of your own home, it effectively strips the securities of where you're suppose to feel the safest in the entire world the most: In your bedroom. A movie that makes you feel this vulnerable probably makes you want to see more of these films...or maybe less.

However, if there's one thing I don't like about the film, it's the ending. The movie builds up so well that the ending ends up feeling very abrupt and so very disappointing because it almost comes out of nowhere. There was no catharsis. But other than that, the film is scary. I'm already starting to feel the after-effects. If a film can manage to scare you and the audience with creaks from a door and footsteps coming from another room, you know the film succeeded. See the movie because I'd rather see an inventive, clever movie like this do well than SAW 57...oh, AND because it's scary. 8/10

I have seen this movie and It made me sleepless for a couple of nights. I have seen a lot of horror movies but this one scared me the most because it looks real and really terrifying. I wouldn't want to watch this movie again, It gave me nightmares. But the movie was good and effective in terrifying audiences, so I still recommend this to people who want to watch this.

I certainly don't have a problem with them bringing it to our attention
here, especially with all the junk that parades it's way through the
major theaters. BUT...we don't have much to go on here...7 critical
opinions, even if they are good ones represent sort of a red flag. When
something really good comes along, the top critics have a way of finding
it and beating the drum for it. The total lack of attention this film
is getting from critics suggests to me that it's probably a relatively
insignificant work.

Probably the studios thought "This could be the next Blair Witch Project". And sure enough, it was!

RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: While the original BLAIR WITCH was ahead of its time in terms of "viral" Net-based marketing, the success of the original PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was based as much on its marketing strategy (what used to be called a "platformed release" -- widening the number of screens the film played on from week-to-week as word-of-mouth spread) as it was on any viral element of its promotion. In other words, both films were brilliantly sold to audiences, but PARANORMAL had the advantage of a major studio with decades of experience to help sell it. The box office results of each film's second installment bears this out: PARANORMAL 2 was a good-sized hit, but BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH, TOO was both a box office bomb and a RAZZIE® "winner"...

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